Images of Tahrir: Egypt's revolutionary art

By Tim Hume, CNN

Updated 0947 GMT (1747 HKT) August 10, 2012

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Photos:Pictures of Tahrir: Egypt's revolutionary art

Painting the revolution – Egyptian artist Nermine Hammam's first solo exhibition in the United Kingdom, "Cairo, Year One," is currently on display in London. Pictured is detail of a work from her series called "Unfolding."

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Photos:Pictures of Tahrir: Egypt's revolutionary art

Painting the revolution – The Cairo-based visual artist says Egypt's revolution has inspired her to produce a prolific amount of work -- five different bodies of work since January 2011.

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Photos:Pictures of Tahrir: Egypt's revolutionary art

Painting the revolution – A work from Hammam's "Unfolding," a series consisting of stylized Japanese landscapes, intersected with explicit footage, downloaded from the internet, of police brutality in the wake of the Egyptian revolution.

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Photos:Pictures of Tahrir: Egypt's revolutionary art

Painting the revolution – Detail from one of Hammam's artworks depicting revolutionary Cairo. Hammam walked the streets around Tahrir Square daily, taking more than 70,000 photographs of the events unfolding.

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Photos:Pictures of Tahrir: Egypt's revolutionary art

Painting the revolution – A work from Hammam's series "Upekkha." "By reclaiming these soldiers as individuals, the artist seeks to reveal the vulnerability of youth parading behind the weaponry and masculinity of the military," says publicity for her show.

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Photos:Pictures of Tahrir: Egypt's revolutionary art

Painting the revolution – Detail from one of Hammam's works depicting Egypt's revolution. The artist initially took photographs herself, then switched to using images from the internet when the streets became too violent.

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Photos:Pictures of Tahrir: Egypt's revolutionary art

Painting the revolution – Detail of a work from "Unfolding." "I have never done five bodies of work over such a short period, I don't think many people have," Hammam said.

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Photos:Pictures of Tahrir: Egypt's revolutionary art

Painting the revolution – Hammam described this series as "like shamanic art," using images of women to "conjure harmony."

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Photos:Pictures of Tahrir: Egypt's revolutionary art

Painting the revolution – "When I thought everything was in chaos, I started creating mandalas," said Hammam. The mandalas represent "hope."

Painting the revolution – "My warrior women combine the symbols of male and female power in one ... asking the universe for healing, and recalibration, through art," she wrote.

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Photos:Pictures of Tahrir: Egypt's revolutionary art

Painting the revolution – Hammam says the revolution is something every Egyptian artist will be drawn to address in their own way, either explicitly or implicitly.

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Painting the revolution – She says it is too soon to say whether the revolution will trigger an artistic revival in her homeland.

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Story highlights

Egyptian visual artist Nermine Hammam is exhibiting her first solo show in the UK

She says Egypt's revolution has made her extraordinarily productive

She has taken more than 70,000 photos of events in Tahrir Square for her work

It remains to be seen whether there will be an artistic revival in the new Egypt, she says

The tumultuous months since January 2011 have confronted Egyptians with uncertainty, triumph and despair on an almost daily basis.

But for one Cairo-based artist, the violence, disruptions and ambiguities of the revolution have also inspired a burst of unprecedented productivity.

Cairo, Year One -- Nermine Hammam's first solo show in the United Kingdom -- contains just a portion of the work she has produced in reckoning with the upheaval reshaping her country.

"Any artist, wherever they are, responds to their surroundings," she said. "It just happens to be that what is happening here is a revolution."

The year following the revolution saw her produce five different bodies of work -- combining elements of photography and painting -- incorporating images from the 70,000 or so snapshots she has taken of events in Tahrir Square and the surrounding neighborhoods.

"I have never done five bodies of work over such a short period, I don't think many people have," she said. "I was responding to each and every feeling I was getting, because everything is moving very quickly. One day you think there's no hope, the next you think there's a lot."

Hammam initially went out every day with her camera, "plunging" herself into Tahrir to document the turmoil playing out around her: "The army, the people taking care of the people on the street."

After that, she said, "when the police were beating up people in the street," she turned to sourcing images of the revolution from the internet. She placed the images incongruously against utopian, postcard scenes from nature -- mountains, flowers and green fields -- or against backdrops modeled on the stylized landscapes of traditional Japanese screens.

Her goal with some of the works was to "conjure harmony" and hope, she said.

Hammam said the momentous events of the revolution were something every Egyptian artist would be drawn to address in their own way, either explicitly or implicitly.

"If other artists haven't yet, they will," she said. "Even if they don't do it directly, psychologically things will change."

But she added that it was too early to say whether the revolution would trigger a lasting artistic revival in her homeland.

Hammam's work was censored under the old regime -- "I took some pictures of the state-run mental asylum and they didn't like that," she said -- and she believed it remained to be seen whether there would be greater space in the new Egypt for artistic expression.

"Maybe perhaps now things will be different; maybe the idea of democracy will allow people to express how they feel," she said. "But for the time being, we have no clue."